Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The idea of genes as beads on a DNA string is fast fading. Protein-coding sequences have no clear beginning or end and RNA is a key part of the information package, reports Helen Pearson.
The Sun occasionally hurls streams of particles towards Earth, where they can wreak havoc with satellites. Predicting these solar storms is hard, but some physicists believe we're about to face the biggest bout of solar flares in years. Stuart Clark reports.
Searing volatility has led some to dismiss Europe's nascent emissions market as a farce — but it is still hanging in there. Quirin Schiermeier reports on the project's teething troubles.
For richer, for poorer — the countries of the Americas and those of the Caribbean present stark contrasts in fortune. An explanation of those contrasts invokes branching chains of cause and effect.
A curious genetic phenomenon allows certain genetic instructions to be passed between generations without the gene variants involved being transmitted. Some spotty mice provide clues to how this might happen.
Treated the right way, carbon nanotubes can be moulded into large, flexible electron-emitting sheets. The material is one half of what's needed for an electronic display you could fold up and slip in your pocket.
Natural killer cells are versatile white blood cells that act in the innate immune system. Quite how adaptable they can be in the absence of other, more specialized, immune cells comes as a surprise.
Chondrules, the stony, seed-like grains in meteorites, were formed when some event melted rock in the solar nebula. The latest analyses narrow the possible ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’ of that process.
A fresh look at an established model in ecology has generated insights into how species coexist with each other. But it has also raised a vexed question: what constitutes the ecological identity of species?
The ability of stem cells to continuously supply vast numbers of cells is magnificent, but it can be devastating if it runs amok, as in some tumours. So what makes a normal stem cell turn bad, and can it be redeemed?
γ-ray bursts are more concentrated in the very brightest regions of their host galaxies than are supernovae — in addition, the host galaxies of the γ-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the supernovae.
The tumour suppressor PTEN is required for maintenance of haematopoietic stem cells, but not leukaemia-initiating cells — this specific effect is mediated by the mTOR pathway and mitigated by rapamycin.
A model in which molten chondrules come to equilibrium with the gas that was evaporated from other chondrules explains why chondrules are depleted in volatile elements, but surprisingly show little evidence for the associated loss of lighter isotopes one would expect.
Comparison of measurements of electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectra obtained from the same specimen, together with theoretical calculations, show that chiral atomic transitions in a specimen are accessible with inelastic electron scattering under particular scattering conditions.
In a transistor configuration, a new germanium/silicon nanowire has characteristics such as conductance, on-current and switching time delay that are better than those of state-of-the-art silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transitors.
Direct observations and sampling of an active eruption at a submarine arc volcano determines that long-term eruptive activity has produced an unusual chemical environment and an ecosystem perhaps distinctive of active arc and hotspot volcanoes.
Yeast strains that behave as cooperators and cheaters when competing for a common resource can stably coexist, because both strategies are associated with costs and benefits.
Natural selection generally favours cooperation if the benefit of the altruistic act divided by the cost exceeds the average number of neighbours, indicating that cooperation can evolve as a consequence of ‘social viscosity’, even in the absence of reputation effects or strategic complexity.
Wolbachia migrate through several tissues and reach the germ line of their arthropod hosts through the somatic stem cell niche during horizontal transmission. In addition, a high abundance of bacteria in this niche suggests that this location may also contribute to efficient vertical transmission.
Dynamic light microscopy imaging of dynamin-coated lipid tubules revealed a GTP hydrolysis-dependent twisting activity — the constricting activity produced by this twisting led to fission only when coupled to the longitudinal tension of the tubules.
Many short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) are toxic when expressed in mice — this is traced to possible competition between the shRNAs and endogenous microRNAs for binding to exportin-5, a factor involved in transporting molecules out of the nucleus.
Use of animals for testing early in the drug-development process aims to provide vital information to make new drugs safe and effective — and the process is being constantly refined. Hannah Hoag finds out what is involved.
Thirty years of oncogene research have provided fascinating Insights into the molecular basis of cancer. Many hurdles remain in the race to beat cancer, but as the articles in this Insight show, a growing understanding of the complex signalling pathways that underlie tumour formation and progression is driving the development of a new generation of anticancer drugs targeted at specific molecular events.
